Neil Young And Crazy Horse
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

In the vast career of the Canadian singer-songwriter/rocker, the albums I prefer the most are those recorded with Crazy Horse as the backing band. Certainly, "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" is not yet at the level of "After The Gold Rush," but it represents an excellent transitional album towards a form of rock that can blend acoustic softness with the electric outbursts that our artist has always accustomed us to. Definitely an album with a more electric imprint and markedly rock compared to other works.

It starts with an excellent track that touches on hard rock, namely "Cinnamon Girl" with its stable rhythm and memorable riff. Neil's voice, unique in its kind, fragile yet powerful, stands out over scratchy guitars, not alien but blending well, supported by excellent backing vocals. It continues with "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere", a song with lighter and more carefree tones, still backed by an electric instrumental part but certainly less "hard" this time, with a good electric guitar solo. The vocal melody immediately makes an impact, especially in the highly impactful chorus. The backing vocals are excellent. A simple, short, but very effective song.

With "Round and Round," we move to a song accompanied by only acoustic guitars and vocals, with a dreamy melody but perhaps a bit repetitive. Nonetheless, the accompanying second voice by Robin Lane is excellent, helping to add something more to Young's vocal line. The following "Down By The River" is, in my opinion, the best song on the entire album. We return to the distortions heard at the beginning of the album, and the song, after a verse and an imposing chorus, unravels for more than nine minutes in a long yet never tiring electric guitar solo that never touches on virtuosity but is effective and functional to the song. "The Losing End" is, instead, a song on the usual excellent country-rock tracks with the usual memorable vocal melody and more than a good instrumental part. The following "Running Dry (Requiem For The Rockets)" is a song of heartrending beauty. Already very good in itself due to Young's dramatic voice, it is enriched by violin accompaniment played by Bobby Notkoff, giving it a requiem touch as suggested by the song’s subtitle.

Concluding in a more than impeccable manner is "Cowgirl In The Sand," with even longer duration, following the jam-session-like almost blues-rock pattern of "Down By The River" with even heavier sounds than the previous one.

Ultimately, perhaps not a masterpiece at the levels of "Harvest," "After the Gold Rush," or "Rust Never Sleeps," but it is still one of the early albums in the Canadian's entire career and can only be excellent, especially for the great rock vibe present in some of its tracks.